Hawaiian Airlines awarded nighttime Haneda routes

Hawaiian Airlines
will be the lone U.S. carrier to operate night flights to Tokyo’s Haneda
Airport when the new aviation agreement between the U.S. and Japan
takes effect on Oct. 30.

The DOT awarded
the route to Hawaiian on May 13, noting that it was the lone carrier to apply
for Haneda night operations.

Under the
approval, Hawaiian will operate four night flights per week between Haneda and
Honolulu and three flights per week between Haneda and Kona.

“Flights between
Hawaii and Japan are the most traveled and most beneficial to the U.S. economy
so be able to expand the number that we can offer to Tokyo Haneda Airport is
especially important,” Hawaiian CEO Mark Dunkerley said of the award.

The new
U.S.-Japan aviation agreement stipulates that six flights per day will be
allowed into Haneda from the U.S., up from the four existing flights. In
addition, five of those six routes will be operated during the day. At present,
U.S. carriers are only allowed to operate night operations at Haneda.

Hawaiian is still
competing against American, Delta and United for those five daytime Haneda
flight allocations. Between them, the carriers have submitted eight
applications for routes to seven different U.S. cities.

The DOT reviewed
Hawaiian’s application for the nighttime Haneda slot separately from the
applications for daytime slots over objections from Delta, which argued the
process should not be bifurcated.

Haneda is Tokyo’s
largest and most convenient airport, as it is closer to the city center than Tokyo Narita.